The April 16 shooting spree at Virginia Tech that left at least 33 people dead is "tremendously sad," said Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond.
In a phone interview just hours after the shootings, Teresa Volante, Catholic campus minister at Virginia Tech, said she had sent out an electronic notice that the Newman Center chapel was open for anyone who wanted to stop in and pray.
But she said the center, located just off the campus, was rather quiet at that time since the dormitories on campus were still locked down and the off-campus students had been instructed to stay away.
"I'm here for students to talk to," she said.
Later in the afternoon Debbie McClintock, a volunteer who came in to help, told Catholic News Service that people at the center were calm and were focused on helping anyone who came in. A prayer service was held at 7 p.m. at the center.
At St. Mary's Parish, the only Catholic parish in Blacksburg, the receptionist said the pastor, Father James Arsenault, had spent more than three hours at the hospital with those who were wounded before heading over to the university to help there.
She said the church would be open all afternoon, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed for adoration, followed by a special Mass in the evening.
Father Rob Cole from Our Lady of Nazareth Parish in Roanoke came in to celebrate the Mass, since Father Arsenault was still busy ministering to victims and their families.
Bishop DiLorenzo, who celebrated a noon Mass for the victims April 17 at the cathedral in Richmond, said his heart goes out to the parents and family members of the dead students.
"At this time one cannot help but think of the endless years of commitment, of love and care these parents have invested in their children and then to have it all cut down by a bullet is tremendously sad," he said.
"The tragedy really hit home with me," he said, because he learned of it at a chancery luncheon that included two women who have children studying at Virginia Tech. He said that fortunately their children were not harmed.
Emily Flach, a freshman business major who lives on campus, said, "People are just really shocked. It's unbelievable that something like this happened."
She told CNS at 3 p.m. that many students had not eaten all day because of the lockdown and a remaining uncertainty about whether it was safe to go out.
She said her dormitory is about three minutes' walk from West Ambler Johnston, the dormitory where two students were killed in the first shooting about 7:15 a.m.
Two hours later the gunman, identified as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior from South Korea, attacked students attending classes in Norris Hall, an engineering building, shooting more than 40 people before killing himself as police were closing in.
The initial death toll was placed at 22, including Cho, but as the day wore on the number of confirmed dead rose to 33.
In a telegram to Bishop DiLorenzo, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his condolences to all those affected by the April 16 shooting, said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state.
"Deeply saddened by news of the shooting at Virginia Tech, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has asked me to convey the assurance of his heartfelt prayers for the victims, their families and for the entire school community," said Cardinal Bertione. "In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy he asks God our Father to console all those who mourn and to grant them that spiritual strength which triumphs over violence by the power of forgiveness, hope and reconciling love."
'Come together and pray'
When Flach learned there would be a prayer service at the Newman Center that evening, she said she thought that was a good idea. "I think the best thing we can do is come together ... and pray for everyone," she said.
Anne Greenwood, a second-year graduate student in history, said she was in a conference room in the Major Williams building, when Cho began shooting people at nearby Norris Hall.
She said the first notice the group she was with had about the shootings was when they began receiving campus e-mail around 9:30 a.m. In quick succession, messages from the administration said there had been a shooting in a residence hall, then warned everyone that a gunman was still on campus and that they should stay inside.
Greenwood said the people she was with were unsure whether they were hearing gunshots because of extreme high winds at the time. "To be quite honest, it was scary as hell," she said.
Speaking with CNS a couple of hours after students were allowed to leave the campus, Greenwood said the impact of the gunman's toll was still hitting her. "I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that so many died," she said.
The April 16 shooting was the deadliest on-campus attack in U.S. history. Before that the worst was at the University of Texas in Austin in 1966, when a gunman climbed a clock tower and killed 16 people before police killed him.
Last year on the first day of classes for the 2006-07 school year at Virginia Tech, an escaped inmate was captured near the campus after he allegedly shot and killed a sheriff's deputy and a security guard. While the search for the inmate was on, classes were canceled, the Virginia Tech campus was closed and students and staff were ordered to stay indoors.
Virginia Tech has about 26,000 students. Volante said about 800 to 1,000 of the students regularly attend Sunday Mass at the Newman Center or are involved in activities there.
'Tears and sadness'
"There's been a lot of tears, a lot of sadness," Catholic campus minister Volante said on the phone as she tried to describe how Virginia Tech students were reacting April 17.
"A lot of students are going to the convocation and ecumenical prayer service," she told Catholic News Service, referring to a 2 p.m. gathering at the university's Cassell Coliseum April 17 and an 8 p.m. candlelight prayer vigil that evening at Drillfield, a large open field in the middle of the campus.
On April 16 and 17 some students stopped in the Newman chapel to pray, while others went to the War Memorial Chapel on campus. Still others stopped by a makeshift memorial shrine set up by some students on campus to write a message, light a candle or say a prayer.
Volante said that before the prayer vigil April 17 there would be a 6 p.m. Mass at the Newman chapel.
She said residents of Blacksburg had been stopping in to bring food and soft drinks for the students and to help out however they can, making coffee, answering phones, talking with students. "There's been overwhelming support from people," she said.
A number of priests from neighboring parishes had come in to help counsel and offer support to students and the grieving families of victims.
Father James Arsenault, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Blacksburg, spent more than three hours April 16 ministering to victims at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, where most of those wounded during the massacre were taken. Then he went to the Virginia Tech campus to help with students and families, staying with them into the early hours of the morning. He was back on campus the next day to comfort families of victims.
With Father Arsenault out at the campus April 16, Father Rob Cole from Our Lady of Nazareth Parish in Roanoke, Va., drove down to Blacksburg to celebrate a special memorial Mass that evening at St. Mary Church and to help the next day with pastoral ministry to the university community. He said many who attended the Mass at St. Mary were students from the university.
Father Victor Quagraine, a graduate student at Virginia Tech who has been providing sacramental ministry for the Newman Center, celebrated the April 16 memorial Mass there and was back the next day to counsel and support students and families.
Father Patrick Golden of St. Jude Parish in Radford, about 10 miles from Blacksburg, also went to Virginia Tech to minister to the university community.
Karen Melendez, Catholic campus minister at Radford University, also joined an ad hoc pastoral team at Virginia Tech. At Radford University classes and other activities were canceled April 17 and many students joined a 2 p.m. vigil on their campus, convened "to show support and love to our Virginia Tech friends and colleagues."
Deacon Michael J. Ellerbrock, a Virginia Tech professor, turned from teaching to ministry, counseling and supporting the students and families.
Bishop DiLorenzo celebrated a memorial Mass in his cathedral April 17 and planned to visit Blacksburg April 21-22. He was to celebrate the Saturday vigil Mass at St. Mary Church April 21 and the regular noon Sunday Mass the next day on campus at the War Memorial Chapel, which the Newman Center uses for its weekend Masses for students.
Bishop DiLorenzo asked parishes throughout the diocese to hold special memorial Masses during the week and to get word of those Masses out to as many people as possible.
Msgr. Thomas F. Shreve, diocesan vicar general, said other priests who went on campus to help included Father John Prinelli of Holy Spirit Parish in Christianburg, Va., and Father Steven R. Rule of Epiphany Parish in Richmond. Father Rule went because there are so many Virginia Tech students from Richmond, he said.
When asked how the diocese organized the response, Msgr. Shreve said most of those who went to help just spontaneously volunteered. But as the calls came in, Anne C. Edwards, the bishop's special assistant and adviser, helped put the pieces together to coordinate their work, he said.
Volante, who is in her first year as a campus minister, said that in trying to deal with the momentous tragedy the university was facing she was relying heavily on the support of the community and on her faith.
"Just praying with the students, being able to celebrate Mass with them, being able to pray in a moment of quiet" was giving her the support she needed, she said. ---CNS |